South Point Soars in Second Half

            Held scoreless in the first half, the Red Raiders offense surged, scoring 28 unanswered points and the defense kept Asheville at bay and came up with their fifth shutout of the year.

            With FB Aaron Crumbley held at bay, it was Desmond Lowery’s night to shine. Lowery scored all of the Red Raiders’ touchdowns on runs of 17, 30, 1 and 6. Lowery also led the team in rushing yards. He had 156 yards on the night.

            “Our coach said at half-time ‘boys it’s going to be tough. The road to the championship’s going to be tough. So we had to play tough, play ball and that’s what happened.” Lowery said “We came out the second half fired up. Our defense stepped it up and our offensive linemen blocked well. We just stuck together and played.”

            “They certainly did a good job against Crumbley tonight.” South Point head coach John Devine said of Asheville’s defense “They weren’t going to let him score four or five touchdowns, but if you do that it’ll open other doors. Pick your poison.”

            While the Red Raiders offense was struggling, the defense made sure that Asheville did not gather momentum. Late in the third quarter and into the fourth quarter, the defense forced three turnovers on three consecutive drives. Two of them were forced fumbles and the other was an interception from Tydre Crawford that was returned inside Asheville’s ten-yard line.

            One thing that cannot be ignored is South Point’s total team effort. “Our kids love each other, play hard and don’t care who gets credit. They just love the game of football. They’re having a blast out there.” Devine added.

            Asheville did move the ball at times, but never really got in the red zone. The defense held South Point in check till midway through the third quarter, but the Red Raiders’ offense was not going to be denied.

            “They put a drive together in third quarter. The key situation was third-and-nine. We jumped in the neutral zone two times, give them a first down.” Asheville head coach Danny Wilkins said “If we force them to snap the ball on third-and-nine, I like our chances of getting our punt team back out there and that touchdown not happening. Then we turned it over a couple of times late and gave them short fields trying to make something happen.”

            “I thought our kids effort was there all night long. I thought we played very hard against a very tough team. We certainly earned their respect tonight, I think.”

            South Point will have to travel to West Rowan, who defeated Winston-Salem Carver 20-16.